To make sure there’s room for all recyclables, it is important for residents to bring all items inside the trailers provided and put everything possible into the boxes lining the trailers’ insides. Only old-style TVs larger than 25 inches should be placed along the trailer wall.

Hours of operation for both sites are Monday through Friday (except holidays) as follows: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Michigan City, and 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in LaPorte. Please do not leave electronics outside the trailer or facility gates at any time.

Accepted items include TVs, computers, monitors, printers, fax machines, copiers, stereos, VCRs, DVD players, telephones, cell phones, zip drives/hard drives, keyboards, mice, calculators, video game stations, microwaves – basically any small appliance that plugs into a wall or runs on battery power.

The district’s contractor is a licensed, professional electronics recycling company; however, the district urges you to protect yourself by erasing personal data that may have been stored on your computer or cell phone. Please remove your hard drive or SIM card, or destroy the hard drive by drilling a hole in it before recycling.

Removal of any electronic device from the trailers is prohibited.

LaPorte Lions Club President Tom Ruda presents a check for $5,000 to Unity Foundation of LaPorte County President Maggi Spartz at the 2-acre site at 1010 Pine Lake Ave. in LaPorte. The money will be used to fund planning for the site. (Click on photo to enlarge)

Information by Sandra Provan

So how did the Unity Foundation of LaPorte County and its supporters seize a piece of prime Pine Lake property to restore?

Maggi Spartz, president of the Unity Foundation, explained how at a November 2011 LaPorte Lions Club meeting. Spartz described the almost 2-acre lakefront property at 1010 Pine Lake Ave., between the Blue Heron Inn and Fay’s Marina, the former site of Roskoe’s Restaurant.

According to the foundation, it all started when someone noticed the “For Sale” sign at the property and asked Unity what was going to happen there. Would it be something positive for the community?

The property, just under 2 acres with 400 feet of seawall and several easements and egresses, includes access from Pine Lake Avenue, a launch ramp, and the cinder-block “Lynda’s Landing” building with bathrooms.

Spartz showed the Lions Club a video of the property. It was the first presentation about the project that the Unity Foundation had made.

At the December 2011 LaPorte Lions Club board meeting, the board decided to give $5,000 toward plans for the property.

“The LaPorte Lions Club is proud to support the Unity Foundation of LaPorte County in its effort to promote access to Pine Lake and to preserve its natural beauty through the ‘Love Our Lakes’ program,” said Tom Ruda, president of LaPorte Lions. “As Lions, our mission is ‘To Serve.’ We strongly support efforts that enhance the quality of life in our community and that provide open space for all residents to enjoy.”

“Everyone wants this project to be awesome and we know professional design help is important,” said Spartz. “We are so grateful for the LaPorte Lions Club’s generous donation.”

The Unity Foundation plans a permanent endowment to maintain the property. “Development plans will influence future maintenance costs and Unity has already established a separate fund for this purpose,” according to the foundation’s website.

Susan Aaron is chairman of the committee for the project, joined by members Liz Bernel, Kim Sauers, Marti Swanson and Michele Thompson. For more information, visit www.uflc.net or call 219-879-0327. To see a video of the Pine Lake project, view http://uflc.net/2011/11/help-us-love-our-lakes-video/.

For more information about LaPorte Lions, visit www.laportelions.org or call Ruda at 324-0603.

Also at the Lions board meeting:

Boss Lion Tom Ruda gave the welcome; Sandra Provan offered prayer and read the November board minutes, which were approved. John Spiggle gave the financial report, which was approved. Ken Schnable gave the Lions Alert financial report, which was approved.

Ruda and Provan will organize the winter party, planned for 1/30/2012.

Bill Burkhart said he has a source for free trees.

Spiggle said he has issued checks for Lions International Cancer Care, Helping Hands and Leader Dogs, and will send a donation to Lions Diabetes. A motion to increase the donation to Indiana School for the Blind Foundation to $1,000 was approved. He said he had received a call from former Lion Mike Lisak, who asked about paying vet bills for his seeing-eye dog Kohl. A motion to pay vet fees up to $250 until 6/30/2012 was approved.

(Click on photos to enlarge)

The new location of LaPorte County’s Purdue Extension office is greener now after the addition of new trees courtesy of NIPSCO and the DNR. Eight trees were planted at the new office building, 2857 W. Ind. 2, LaPorte, thanks to an energy conservation tree-planting grant from the utility and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Community and Urban Forestry Division.

The trees will help save heating and cooling costs as well as reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Autumn Blaze Maple and Red Sunset Red Maple were planted on the west and south sides of the new building and are estimated to reach a mature height of 50 feet tall with a width up to 50 feet.

Providing additional technical assistance for the tree-planting project were Bill Woodruff, president of LaPorte County Landscaping, and Dawn Komasinski, utility arborist for NIPSCO Forestry Operations.

“Even if we don’t win, what we accomplished during this competition in raising awareness of how many items you can recycle and getting more kids to do it – to me, we’ve already won,” said Kate Triemstra, the seventh-grade science teacher who led the competition.

Using mathematical conversion factors provided by Recycle-Bowl sponsors Keep America Beautiful, Triemstra said she calculated that Elston and AK Smith Center students recycled more than 26,000 pounds of paper, plastic and other materials over four weeks.

“Even though we already recycled well over half of what is used outside of the cafeteria, we saw a lot more participation and awareness,” she said. “I think what really helped was that the Green Team put up posters over all the trash cans that said, ‘Can this be recycled?’ with a list of things that are recyclable under it.”

Contest winners will be announced in mid-January by Keep America Beautiful.

The LaPorte County Solid Waste District’s donation of in-classroom recycling bins to the AK Smith Center, located in the Elston building, helped increase the amount of recycling that could be contributed to the competition, Triemstra said.

“There were days we couldn’t even fit all of our recycling in the dumpster we share because they filled it up,” she said.

Triemstra is in charge of the Green Team, which has existed for six years at Elston as a strong, student-led recycling team. The Green Team is in charge of collecting recycling from classrooms each week, and during Recycle-Bowl they measured the efforts of each of the school’s grade-level teams.

“We worked with the teachers to do this; like some of my teachers told us to recycle our graded papers,” said Jysica Zacariaz, the Green Team’s eighth-grade captain.

The team that recycled the most was determined to be 7A, Triemstra said, including efforts led by teachers Daena Sisk, Shannon Galloway and Amy Wojasinski-Labis. That team of about 100 students, as well as the Green Team, will receive a special reward sponsored by the Solid Waste District.

“I am so proud of what these students have accomplished,” said Alicia Ebaugh, district education coordinator. “Like those of us with the district, they believe in making this world a better place through recycling as much waste as possible to conserve resources.”

Karen Piper gave the conservation report on “Don’t Toss the Pot.” Piper and Dee Nusbaum led the program, which was a hands-on holiday decoration project.

The 2012-2013 Terra Verde board elections took place. Frances Raderstorf will be president; Joan Stone, vice president; Sue Cummings, treasurer; Karen Piper, secretary.

The club will not meet again until Feb. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.

For more information about the club, call 362-1603.

The former Roskoe's restaurant property from lakeside.

(Click on photos to enlarge)

The Unity Foundation of LaPorte County and the LaPorte City Park Foundation plan to reclaim a prime piece of Pine Lake acreage from retail use, thus regaining part of the lake’s beautiful vista on the north side of LaPorte.

Unity has secured purchase of the property at 1010 Pine Lake Ave., the site of the former Roskoe’s restaurant. The partnership project, entitled “Love Our Lakes,” includes a vision to preserve the beauty of the lakefront and enhance the community for generations to come.

The LaPorte City Park Foundation will begin clearing the property in the coming weeks. The Love Our Lakes project partners hope to announce more plans within the next six months.

Maggi Spartz, Unity Foundation president, said, “It all started when someone noticed the ‘For Sale’ sign and asked, ‘What’s going to go there?’ This was at the same time the Unity Foundation was looking to have an even greater impact on the community. Our role here is to get things going and coordinate action.”

Steve Bernth, president of the LaPorte City Park Foundation, said, “Unity Foundation is quarterbacking a project that no one group could do alone. We are excited about the potential of this project as it becomes something people can appreciate and enjoy for many years.”

The Unity Foundation’s purpose is to make LaPorte County a dynamic county, recognized for its economic vitality, rich quality of life and investment in its people and known for its innovative leadership and supportive citizenry. Its mission is to strengthen LaPorte County now and forever by building permanent endowment, providing leadership, offering philanthropic vehicles for everyone, and being a catalyst for social and economic vitality. Since 1992, Unity has served donors, nonprofits and local communities. It manages approximately $20 million in assets, administers more than 180 charitable funds, and has distributed nearly $9 million in LaPorte County through direct grants and scholarships.

The LaPorte City Park Foundation was established in 1984 to promote, improve and create LaPorte parks. Recent Foundation projects include renovation of Ben Rees Park, as well as playground equipment improvements at Rumely and Koomler parks and Scott Field. The foundation also strives to help in educating the community and visitors about the city’s parks.

For more information, contact Maggi Spartz at 219-879-0327 or Steve Bernth at 219-362-9587.

The view of Pine Lake from the property to be reclaimed.

The new county-owned building is now home to the SWD, which was formerly located in rented space at the corner of U.S. 35 North and Johnson Road.

The SWD website — www.solidwastedistrict.com — remains the same, but all e-mails now consist of the employee’s first initial and last name, followed by .solidwastedistrict.com.

Please stop by and see the new location!

LaPorte County Parks Superintendent Tim Morgan, Alcoa Howmet Human Resource Manager Tera Grinnell and LaPorte County Parks Foundation President Jim Jessup.

(Click on photos to enlarge)

The LaPorte County Parks Department was recently honored for one finished park project and received funding for one being planned.

$25,000 for Luhr Playtrail

The Alcoa Foundation and Alcoa Howmet, LaPorte, have contributed $25,000 to the LaPorte County Parks Foundation to create a “playtrail” in Luhr County Park, just south of LaPorte. The LaPorte County Parks Foundation also will contribute $25,000 to the project.

“The beauty of the project is that it builds upon the existing trail, which is paved and fully accessible to all LaPorte residents,” said Parks Foundation President Jim Jessup. “The new playtrail will add a level of activities that will contribute to the wellness of families, encouraging all of us to get outdoors.”

The innovative project will be constructed in pods, which will feature various play components incorporating wellness and the environment. The trail goes through the heart of four ecosystems: upland woods, prairie, pond and wetlands.

“The planned additions to the playtrail will give families recreational breaks along the trail on their journey in learning about the local environment,” said Tera Grinnell, Alcoa Howmet human resources manager. “We are proud to support community projects that bring families closer together, encourage a healthy lifestyle, and allow everyone a chance to enjoy our precious natural resources.”

Little Calumet Watershed award

The Board of Governors of The Society of Innovators of Northwest Indiana have selected the Red Mill County Park Team of the LaPorte County Park Department for honorary membership in The Society of Innovators. The team joins innovative thinkers and doers representing the counties of Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Newton, Porter, Pulaski, and Starke counties. The honor is for work on a creative solution to the Great Lakes Fisheries Ecosystem Restoration Project that secured the Little Calumet Watershed State Nature Preserve with the United States Army Corps of Engineers.

“The selection of our members is a deliberate and rigorous process of discovery of the most innovative individuals and teams representing our region and state, and again, we congratulate you,” said John Davies, managing director of the society.

Red Mill Park Watershed project

]]> http://www.whatsnewlaporte.com/2011/10/31/lp-county-parks-receive-funds-for-one-project-award-for-another/feed/ 0 http://www.whatsnewlaporte.com/2011/10/24/beauty-in-flight/ http://www.whatsnewlaporte.com/2011/10/24/beauty-in-flight/#comments Mon, 24 Oct 2011 16:19:08 +0000 Staff http://www.whatsnewlaporte.com/?p=27161

Photo by Mike Kellems

(CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE)

Mike Kellems captured this majestic shot of a hawk alighting on a power line along CR 400 West near State Road 8. “The bird was alongside of a ditch bank picking up dinner, and I followed him as he flew away,” Mike wrote. “I’m not sure what is in his claw — probably a mouse.”